Don’t Just Jump On The Next Bandwagon—Innovate!

No matter what industry you’re in, you’re not going to steal a march on the competition by jumping on the same bandwagons that they’re on. Instead, you need to innovate. Adopting lean production, six-sigma, theory of constraints, etc. will all help you improve your business, but, if your competitors are applying the same techniques to their businesses and processes, then the best you can hope for is parity.

Is Pi Wrong?

Today, March 14 (or 3.14, if that helps make more sense), is π day—a celebration of the constant defined by the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, and promoted as a day for celebrating mathematics. But is π the wrong circle constant?

Simulation Quality Control

How do you know if the results of a simulation analysis are accurate and reliable?

This is an important and fundamental question. If a simulation produces invalid results, yet the client accepts and acts upon them, then they’re heading into a world of pain. Just as bad is the situation in which the results are valid, but are distrusted by the client and so are disregarded. In both cases, the outcomes can be catastrophic.

A Checkbox Simulation Horror Story

A checkbox simulation is a simulation study that is done purely to comply with a company policy that new facility designs must be simulated—but typically without any criteria specifying the quality of that simulation. What follows is a fictitious story—yet one that’s all-to-common in my experience—about the limitations of such simulation studies, and the accompanying race-to-the-bottom by consulting firms competing to perform them. I’m glad to point out that Hindsight is not one of them…